Information systems keep focus on client needs

Bruce Copeland formed Sandfield because he wanted to be his own boss. Picture / Dean Purcell

Software development is "not a dirty word", says Bruce Copeland, managing director of Auckland information systems provider Sandfield Associates.

Sandfield provides tailored information systems rather than "out-of-the-box" software.

"Conventional wisdom is that buying a package is the low-risk option," said Copeland.

"But for many businesses, getting a well-built, well-structured, focused application which specifically meets their needs is a good option."

Sandfield Associates was formed in 1988 by Copeland and another business partner who has since retired.

Copeland was already an experienced accountant and the business was formed largely out of the desire not to work for someone else.

"Like a lot of small businesses, we just didn't want jobs any more," he said.

"You read about business plans and the formality of those things. We've never done them, and to be fair, we still don't do them now."

The company has grown by a third each year for the past five years and Copeland said the key to success was how one capitalised on opportunity.

"It's more about opportunity management, recognising opportunities and going out and finding opportunities and making the best of them.

"The business has really been built up on that basis."

Much of Sandfield's growth had come because it had long-standing relationships with clients.

"We've been fortunate that we've been able to work with companies like Mainfreight and Flight Centre when they first started and, of course, they've now become quite large companies."

Mainfreight had the "guts to really want IT which suited their business. They didn't want some other package that had been designed to answer someone else's problem, they wanted some IT which captured the things they felt made their business special.

"And they wanted someone who could capture those qualities in a system and then evolve it as the business changed and altered."

Sandfield built Mainfreight's original operational system in the late 1980s and early 1990s - the first freight-tracking system using barcodes to go live in New Zealand.

The same system carried them through to 2000 and has been updated to keep pace with technology.

"We built them another system in a Microsoft environment," said Copeland. "The first system was still working fine, but it was outdated."

It was important to provide solutions that were "focused, elegant and had particular meaning for the client.

"Someone asked me, 'why would Mainfreight ask us to build their CRM system when there are so many around?' The answer is that we know their business so well and it's easier and quicker to get us to build just what they need, instead of buying a hulking great package with extra functionality they don't want."

Copeland said changes in technology did not remove the traditional business problems of how to run companies more efficiently, what technology they should be using and a smart way to apply that.

"During the dotcom era, it was evangelised that the online thing would change the world and lots of specialist web development shops started up, whereas we were clearly embedded in dusty old industry.

"We did recognise, though, that many of our clients' day-to-day processes could and should be pushed out on to the web. We were in a good position to do that because we understood how those processes worked."

One hurdle faced by developers is that when people want to change systems they often throw out the vendors. But Sandfield's objective was to look after a client through their third and fourth phases of technology and systems over a number of years.

"We and plenty of similar businesses out there are doing well," said Copeland. "Our clients have had a great run with technology and technology has been able to make a significant contribution to their businesses. We like to focus on doing a good job and driving value into business by using IT."


SANDFIELD ASSOCIATES

* Who: Bruce Copeland, MD Sandfield Associates.

* Where: Auckland.

* What: Information systems.

* Why: "We're habitual developers."